How far to Conchucos? A GIS approach to assessing the implications of exotic materials at Chavn de Huntar

How far to Conchucos? A GIS approachto assessing the implications of exoticmaterials at Chavn de Huantar

Daniel A. Contreras

Abstract

Chavn de Huantar has long been recognized as a site of pan-regional importance in the firstmillennium BCE Central Andes. Multiple lines of evidence link the site to costa, sierra and selva.Using exotic goods for which provenance is known for example, obsidian, cinnabar, selected

ceramics and marine shell specific areas with which Chavn interacted can be identified. Theseinteractions are considered in the context of distinct ways of thinking about Central Andean space a least-cost transportation surface, the Inca road network and ethno-historically reconstructed

territories. I argue that explicitly modeling the implications of connecting such nodes andconsidering distance in multiple ways facilitates a better characterization of interregional interaction.

Keywords

Least-cost paths; Chavn; interaction networks.

Introduction

The first millennium BCE ceremonial center of Chavn de Huantar, iconic in Andean

archaeology for its monumental architecture and elaborate lithic art, has long been linked

to far-flung areas of the Central Andes (Fig. 1). These include sites connected by

similarities in material culture and/or architecture and sources of raw material, and have

played an important role in interpretations both of Chavn itself and of regional

developments in the Central Andes during this period (see, for example, Burger 1988,

Martn, A. J. 2009. The domestic mode of production and the development of sociopoliticalcomplexity: evidence from the Spondylus industry of coastal Ecuador. Doctoral dissertation,Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh.